6 Excellent Ways to Make Emails Boost Christmas Sales
Christmas is the perfect time to boost your revenue. Consumer spending goes surging through the roof. Certain markets have even recorded approximately USD $465bn in revenue, while Deloitte’s Year-End Holiday Survey predicted that South Africans would increase their spending to an average of 5.7% in 2014.
So having a solid Christmas strategy for sales is a must and, if email marketing is part of it, you’re likely to make some serious profit. With that in mind, this is how you should make emails work for you this upcoming Christmas.
1.      Target strategically
An article in Business 2 Community highlights the different kinds of Christmas shopping habits. These include:
- those who shop the whole year round
- consumers who start in October and November
- customers hoping to get discounts in December
- and last minute shoppers
These are the types of shoppers you’re dealing with. As such, you should have an email schedule shaped around such habits. In other words, broadcast emails providing different experiences to each customer group when they’re likely to spend.
2.      Be the early bird
Remember, you’ve got competition. They’re also eager to get in on the Christmas action, and you don’t want to be jostling for attention as this can make your campaign look rushed. Start forming relationships with your customers as early as possible. Send them newsletters containing helpful content that can help them make important decisions during Christmas. When your competition finally arrives, customers will remember you the most.
3.      Send as many emails as you can
You might think it’s annoying but, according to advice from some heavy-weight experts, increasing the frequency of your emails is a good idea during the holiday season. And the numbers speak for themselves. In fact, we’ve already covered how 61% customers want to see at least one email a week from their favourite brands. And that’s not even during the festive season.
However, bear in mind that they shouldn’t always be sales heavy. Therefore, find a balance between content and specials.
4.      Remember mobile’s importance
There’s no doubt that mobile is taking over. Smart Insights reports that 47% of emails are open using a mobile device. That’s nearly half of your database. So you should ensure that your email is responsive, as this ensures more engagement.
5.      Keep in tune with the Christmas theme
Your email needs to look the part. It has to speak of the joys that come with Christmas. This gets customers into the festive spirit, and encourages engagement. So design all your emails to be in the spirit of the festive season, even reminder, transactional and sign-up forms. If you have a landing page, make sure this too has the consistency of the email your traffic is coming from.
6.      Keep last year’s insights into consideration
Past experiences are some of the best teachers, and past Christmas email campaigns are no exception. These provide a rich source of data on elements such as the subject lines and promotions worked for example. At the same time, they also allow you to review mistakes you made, allowing you to avoid them entirely.
Even after you’re done with this year email campaign, you should keep a record of the insights you gain from the exercise for next year. This improves your planning for the future.
Email marketing presents such an incredible opportunity for marketers who use it during Christmas. It can significantly prop revenue and generate more loyalty. If it’s not part of your strategy, you should consider giving it a go. The results speak for themselves.
